KOrea - Hanging in the south with little Kim's big brother South East Asia, Nepal, Korea

having been bled dry by leeches... having had leeches bloodlet you...

NEPAL | Friday, 2 July 2010 | Views [757]

we have been away from kathmandu for what seems like a month, im not really sure how long its been, maybe a week... our course finished on friday, and we had a thousand course graduation dinner of nepali food with rice wine, and for some reason, sangria. after a savage hangover and some hasty packing we got the hell out of there and caught a bus to gorkha up in the hills. after racing through the countryside for 4 hours, and not seeing too much of it, we finally managed to climb on the roof for the final 30 km or so. soo much better. hot cramped bus where you cant see anything or a slightly more dangerous and uncomfortable rooftop? rooftop wins. so besides a sweet lightening storm and some pretty epic views gorkha didnt offer us too much. we hiked up 1500 steps to the temple at the top of the hill, got a bit sweaty and caught the bus to pokhara. this place is much nicer than kathmandu, cleaner, less people, less hassle, and the mountains are so much clearer. we hired motorbikes on our first day here and rode off in search of a good view. my bike was 20 or so years old, but hondas dont die, this one just got slower and slower as the trip progressed until it finally overheated and stopped. we left it for a while and went for a walk. we realised at about this point that we had missed our intended destination by something like 40 km, but we stopped in a small town on the top of a big hill and hung out with some local dudes for the afternoon. one of them took us to his house and introduced us to his 6 month old kid and his wife who didnt seem all that keen to see us, but i guess she was shy or didnt speak any english. we rode home and siphoned out the remaining gas for a future expedition. next day we were sitting by the lake having a beer when the clouds opened, and we saw the view that we had been seeking when we got the bikes. we quickly jumped in a cab and headed to the hilltop to watch the sunset, which was ridiculous, with 3 of the highest (and i think shyest) mountains in nepal visible for a few minutes. yesterday we embarked on a mission to reach the world peace pagoda on the other side of town. after a long walk through the hills on a clearly marked path, we ended up in a village that had been abandoned for about 300 years i think, it was just the remains of some stone walls, and terraced fields that were overgrown with trees. as we tried to find the path we scrabbled through the undergrowth where leeches crawled into our socks and started chewing on my ankles. i didnt notice them until we had found a way up to the top and stopped for a drink, where i noticed that my ankles were bleeding into my socks. the old lady at the top of the hill was awesome, and burned them off wile lissa and luke checked their shoes, and discovered parasites of their own. after the excitement of killing the leeches, the pagoda at the top of the hill seemed pretty dull, so we walked down the shore with an american couple we had met at the top and caught 2 boats back, because apparently our western money is too heavy to fit in just one boat, it might sink... the 10 nepalis we passed mid lake in just one boat must weigh much less than us... aah well... so tomorrow we depart for the annapurna circuit. lissa and luke are fretting about the thorung la pass, 5416 meters up. we will have to take 3 days acclimatising to the altitude so as not to die. should be fun!!!!